Financial Ratios and Discriminant Analysis 599
. , _ Predicted Group Membership
Actual Group
Membership
Bankrupt
Non-Bankrupt
The actual group membership is equivalent to the a priori groupings and the
model attempts to classify correctly these firms. At this stage, the model is
basically explanatory. When new companies are classified, the nature of the
model is predictive.
The H's stand for correct classifications (Hits) and the M's stand for misclassifications
(Misses). Ml represents a Type I error and M2 a Type II error.
The sum of the diagonal elements equals the total correct "hits," and when
divided into the total number of firms classified (sixty-six in the case of the
initial sample), yields the measure of success of the MDA in classifying firms,
that is, the per cent of firms correctly classified. This percentage is analogous
to the coefficient of determination (R^) in regression analysis, which measures
the per cent of the variation of the dependent variable explained by the independent
variables.
The final criterion used to establish the best model was to observe its accuracy
in predicting bankruptcy. A series of six tests were performed.
(1) Initial Sample (Group 1). The initial sample of 33 firms in each of the
two groups is examined using data one financial statement prior to bankruptcy.
Since the discriminant coefficients and the group distributions are derived
from this sample, a high degree of successful classification is expected. This
should occur because the firms are classified using a discriminant function
which, in fact, is based upon the individual measurements of these same firms.
The classification matrix for the initial sample is as follows:
Predicted
Actual Group 1 Group 2
Type I
Type II
Total
Number
Correct
31
32
63
Per cent
Correct
94
97
95
Per cent
Error
6
3
5
Group 1
Group 2
n
33
33
66